U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative

(2001): The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in 2001, which was then used by a federal district court in California to issue a permanent injunction against OCBC, prohibiting it from distributing medical cannabis. In the opinion rendered on May 14, 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to medical cannabis patients by declaring that a person in federal court may not argue that distribution of cannabis to patients is a medical necessity. The Court was very adamant in its opinion that federal law still criminalizes the use and distribution of medical cannabis. It specifically left open several questions, such as constitutional limitations on federal authority, which will be litigated in the OCBC's pending appeal in the Ninth Circuit. This ruling applied to five other medical cannabis clubs, of which at least one has filed additional appeals not yet heard. Click to view the ruling.